This January, the minimum wage in California will increase to a whopping $11 an hour, and that’s great news for entry-levelHollywood employees. Some assistant jobs have historically paid $500/week for a 50-hour work week, but these new laws should help curb that. Even so, you won't be making the big bucks. Our friend Sam Wilson at Any Possibility has a breakdown of entry-level salaries across the industry, and the highest she reports is $850/week as a writers’ or showrunner’s assistant, which is arguably not even an entry-level job, since you’ll usually need solid connections formed as a PA ($147/day) or agent’s assistant ($12/hour) to snag those gigs.

So, what’s a Hollywood hopeful to do with this information?

Recognize just how competitive this industry is. Hundreds of people are applying for jobs that barely even cover rent because they want to work in Hollywood so badly. This means you need to stand out during the application process and make sure you deliver when you’ve got your desk, since you’re easily replaceable.

Understand where you stand in salary negotiations. The industry rate is pretty standard. That doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate, but it does mean you have to be careful when and how you do. If you need $40k to make your lifestyle work, you shouldn’t apply for an agent’s assistant job, because those rates are locked in. You’re better off trying your hand at an assistant job at a large production company, where there might be more room to tack on an extra $5k or bonuses. It’s best not to talk about salary expectations in an interview until your employer brings it up, and from their cadence, you can see if there’s room to negotiate.

Don’t be afraid to turn down an opportunity that’s really out of your range. True story: An opportunity once came up where the employer said, “The job is $20k a year. Non-negotiable. If you can’t make that work, don’t come in for the interview.” For a first foot in the door, you may consider that opportunity if the company is a really great fit, but after a couple of years as an assistant, you can hold out for something better.

Look into a side hustle. If you're struggling to pay the bills, consider driving for uber on the weekends, holding down a server job, or freelancing as a script reader. Many assistants have more than one job (and the ones who don't probably have rich parents). But know yourself and your boss. If you have the kind of boss who calls you over the weekend or expects you to cover five scripts by Mondaymorning, you may not have the capacity for a side gig, and that’s okay. Your assistant job should take priority, because the better you perform there, the more likely you are to get promoted, a raise, or recommended for another job.

Make friends in the industry. This is important for all sorts of reasons, but especially when it comes to money. Your college friends may be pursuing immediately lucrative careers, and it’s easy to get caught up in their spending habits or feel sorry for yourself when you see them post pictures of their Croatian vacations on Instagram, and you can’t even afford to eat at the new Croatian restaurant in the valley. But your industry friends will understand when you have to order a soda at “drinks” or have to pass on the penthouse bachelor party suite. Watch the Friends episode “The One with Five Steaks an Eggplant” and embrace the Phoebes, Joeys, and Rachels in your life.

Hollywood is like a small town -- everyone knows everyone or at least knows someone who knows someone. So, when you lie on your resume or in a job interview, you’re bound to get caught. There are big, obvious lies to stay away from, like saying you interned at a production company whose doors you never even walked through, but there are also smaller lies that can get you into trouble.

If you were an intern, don’t say you were an assistant; chances are, your future employer knows someone they can call to verify (or worse, knows the actual assistant!). If you were an art department PA, don’t say you assisted the producer. If you spent your summer only writing coverage, don’t claim that you developed projects. The risks of getting caught far outweigh the benefits of stretching the truth.

There are three types of job candidates in this world: the kind who sling together a list of skills into a Word document written in boring Times New Roman; the kind who include infographics, word art, and shaded borders to stand out; and the little bears who get it just right. You might think your skills can speak for themselves and proper formatting is unnecessary. Wrong. An unformatted or under-formatted resume exudes carelessness and pigeonholes you as the kind of candidate who can never, ever, ever be assigned outward or upward facing communications. What, are you going to submit a treatment to a network that looks like it was written on scratch paper?!

It's just as bad if you oscillate the other way and showcase your graphic design talents or your excellent ability to use the design functions in Word that no one really understands. (Though, for design industries or art-related jobs, go for it, but maybe use Illustrator, not Word). Your resume isn’t your booth at the 7th grade science fair, adorned with a collaged poster to lure the judges over. It’s a professional document and should read like one -- organized, clean, and bolded/italicized/underlined minimally and consistently. Try reading your resume in under 30 seconds, the way a hiring manager would -- does all the information you want to make “pop” pop without giving you a headache? If not, you need to reformat.​

It’s tempting to take the first job you're offered, especially since the entertainment industry is so competitive. But there are times you shouldn’t accept the offer.

For instance, if the job comes with a substantial pay cut without the opportunity to gain new skills -- like moving from development assistant at prodco A to development assistant at prodco B -- you’re probably better off waiting a little longer for another opportunity, even if you’re bored as hell and can’t stand your boss at your current job.

If you got weird vibes during the interview, you should think twice about accepting the offer. Maybe your potential future boss has a reputation for being horrible to his assistants, and you could clearly see the mascara-stained tears on his current assistant’s face.

Or, you’re really looking for a place where you can grow, but the interviewer makes it clear that they don’t plan to promote unless one of the higher ups, who’s been there for a decade, randomly decides to leave or mysteriously disappears.